Texas A&M Football Earns Four SEC Awards

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- The Texas A&M football team's 10-2 inaugural season in the Southeastern Confererence yielded four more honors, the conference office announced on Wednesday.

Earning individual awards from the SEC were head coach Kevin Sumlin, junior offensive tackle Luke Joeckel and redshirt freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel. Joeckel and Manziel are both in Orlando, Fla., for the 22nd Home Depot College Football Awards, which will be televised at 6:30 p.m. (CT) on Thursday on ESPN.

Sumlin shared the SEC Coach of the Year honor with Florida's Will Muschamp, after leading the Aggies to a 10-2 record and a berth in the 2013 AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic. It was Texas A&M's first 10-win season since 1998 and the 12th in program history. The Aggies compiled a 6-2 conference record in their first year in the rugged Southeastern Conference. Sumlin's 10 wins were the most by a first-year Texas A&M head coach, bettering the eight wins compiled by R.C. Slocum in 1989 and D.X. Bible in 1917.

Joeckel, a junior from Arlington, Texas, earned the prestigious Jacobs Blocking Trophy, which is given annually to the top blocker in the SEC, as well as the Atlantic Coast Conference, the South Atlantic Conference and the South Conference. Joeckel has been the cornerstone of the one of the best offensive fronts in college football that helped the Aggies generate 400-plus yards in a school-record 11 straight games, including six 600-yard effort. The Aggies lead the SEC in rushing, passing, scoring and total offense. Nationally, the Aggies ranked No. 3 in total offense with a 552.3 per game average and rank No. 4 in scoring with 44.8 points per game while averaging nearly 80 plays per game.

Manziel, a freshman from Kerrville, Texas, was named SEC Offensive Player of the Year and SEC Freshman of the Year after a record-setting first season of action. He is the first freshman to win the SEC Offensive Player of the Year honor since Georgia's Herschel Walker in 1980. Manziel broke the SEC record for total offense in a game originally set by Archie Manning of Ole Miss in 1969 with 557 yards against Arkansas and then re-broke his own record with 576 total yards against Louisiana Tech. He went on to break 2010 Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton's SEC's season total offense record with 4,600 yards through Texas A&M's first 12 games.

Now in its 22nd year, the Home Depot College Football Awards features the live presentation of:• Nine National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA) player awards
• The NCFAA Contribution to College Football Award to Ara Parseghian
• The Home Depot Coach of the Year Award
• The Disney Spirit Award
• Student-athletes selected to the Walter Camp All-America Team and The Allstate AFCA Good Works Teams®

Joeckel will be vying with Alabama's Barrett Jones and North Carolina's Jonathan Cooper for the Outland Trophy, which is given to college football's top interior lineman. Manziel is a finalist for a pair of awards - the Maxwell Award (top player) and the Davey O'Brien Award (top quarterback). Joining Manziel as a finalist for the Maxwell Award is Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein and Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o, and Manziel is joined by Klein and Ohio State's Braxton Miller as finalists for the O'Brien Award.

ESPN has announced the celebrity presenters for each award. The Maxwell Award will be presented by College Football Hall of Famer Charlie Ward, who won the award while at Florida State in 1993. The O'Brien Award will be presented by former Penn State quarterback Todd Blackledge, who won the award in 1982. The Outland will be presented by former Nebraska lineman Will Shields, who won the award in 1992.

2012 SEC AWARDS (* - Ties )

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEARJohnny Manziel, Texas A&M

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Jadeveon Clowney, South Carolina

CO-SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE YEAR
*Caleb Sturgis, Florida
*Ace Sanders, South Carolina